DOM Desert Riders

The Unofficial Blog Of The Dirty Old Men - Bench Racing, Motorcycle Bending, And Beer Drinking Association. The D.O.M. club enjoys safe, family-orientated fun in the desert, and respects the environment. Despite the name of the club, it doesn't matter if you ride a motorcycle, a quad, or a sand rail; and it doesn't matter if you don't ride at all. It's also okay with DOMers if you don't drink beer, or alcohol of any type.

Friday, November 30, 2007

Charlie's Place - Thanksgiving '07

Happy Belated Thanksgiving to you all. Our family tradition continued again this year by spending Thanksgiving with the D.O.M. club in the desert. We went to the club's traditional locale, Charlie's Place. This is my personal favorite riding location, and I wouldn't mind visiting here three or four times per season. Over the past few of years, the club has been coming here twice per season; once on Thanksgiving, and once in the Spring.

It's been so busy at work lately, that I wasn't as prepared as I would have liked to have been for the ride. I haven't had a free weekend to prepare or otherwise take care of the maintenance on the quads and the trailer. Laura took Wed. 11-21 off as a vacation day, just so she could pack, shop and clean. I couldn't even start hooking up until early Thurs. morning. But we got it all done, and left the house at 8:15 a.m. Thanksgiving morning.

I made it to Charlie's Place in record breaking time: just over three hours. We pulled into camp at 11:30 a.m. It seems like each year more and more people come out, and more of them arrive earlier in the week. In the clearing off of Trona Rd. a few miles past the turnoff from U.S.395 there were already dozens of trailers. A bit down the road the Punch Bowl was full of trailers, and further still down the road where the pipeline trail and the railroad tracks cross, dozens more trailers were already parked.

Charlie's Place was also filling up, but we got the 2nd to the last front row spot in our circle. We were a little too close to the group next to us for my comfort, but it was all good. The club had a decent turnout. The club King & Queen were not there; Dan had to work on both Fri. & Sat. There were some others who didn't show up, but usually come to this ride: Chris T. & his daughters; Craig & Stephanie H. & their kids; Steve & Lynn K. & their kids. (well I guess the K's moved to Arkansas, but the rumor was that they would come back for a ride or two). Several of Joe & Di's friends didn't show either.

Those who were there included Butch & Patty & their kids; Kenny & Casey & their kids, including L. who is here from out of state (very nice to see you again, and glad you could make it); Tom & Cindy & their daughter; Fred & Daisy; and Cole & Rene who were taking on the duties of King & Queen for the weekend (in Dan & Leslie's absence). There were several others as well, some of whom showed up later on Thurs., like Ron & Cindy & their son, and others on Fri. By the way, the term "kid" that I used above is not to imply that these are little children. These are teens and young adults, and I don't want to insult them by calling them kids.

Anyway, Thursday afternoon was just to park, level, unpack, convert the interior of the trailer from a cargo hold to a living area, disengage the truck from the trailer, unload the fire wood at the pit, kick back a bit while drinking some beers, and visit with all of our friends while waiting until the potluck started.

We (our family) didn't ride until Fri., which is where I'll pick up the story next.